Why You Should Vote “YES” for Louisiana’s Constitutional Amendment #1

October 11, 2017

Voting YES on Amendment 1 is saying YES to jobs in Louisiana

Voting yes to Constitutional Amendment #1 on Saturday means voting yes on jobs, families and the economy in Louisiana. That’s because Amendment #1 would prohibit the assessment of property taxes on all projects during their construction.

Such a tax would be a time killer – or worse, project killer – for industries dependent on construction, the lifeblood of our economy. That includes ports, shipyards and much-needed infrastructure expansions like pipelines and transmission lines, all of which small businesses need to keep costs low and remain profitable. Consumers need them even more.

Consider how energy costs impact those less well-off. Per reports, the 938,000 households in Louisiana with incomes under $50,000 – about 55 percent of all households – spent, on average, 17 percent of their take-home income on utility and gasoline bills in 2015. The 606,000 households earning less than $30,000 before taxes spent an even larger percentage, 23 percent. Both are far higher than the six percent experts deem affordable.

The antidote is obvious: Expand energy production and its adjoining infrastructure, especially in a state recently labeled the nation’s largest energy consumer per capita. But both are either far-fetched or long-term scenarios if more taxes are added on.

That brings us back to Constitutional Amendment #1: It’s a winner. Constitutional Amendment #1 provides certainty to every business seeking to invest money and create jobs in Louisiana by ensuring it’s not targeted with a new, unexpected property tax bill. If it fails, new construction projects will be in danger of moving forward slothfully or not at all. That includes the energy infrastructure projects that low-income households need to make ends meet.